School pupils across South Lanarkshire have been given a say in how their school budget is used.
Through the Pupil Equity Fund, South Lanarkshire children have had the opportunity to get more involved in budget decisions.
Every school receiving Pupil Equity Funding has set aside at least five per cent of their budget for Participatory Budgeting which allows pupils to be engaged and involved in the purchase of learning resources.
The Pupil Equity Fund is allocated directly to schools to help close the poverty related attainment gap, and the idea is that through allocating funds towards Participatory Budgeting there is a wider democratic involvement.
In 2021 to 2022, schools collectively allocated more than £607,000 to participatory budgeting which is approximately six per cent of the £9.9million Pupil Equity Fund budget.
Lynsey Hamilton, the chair of the council’s education resources committee, said: “I am delighted so many schools are using this funding to target areas that are important to them whilst enabling pupil voice to flourish through participatory budgeting.
“It is important for our schools to create opportunities for their communities to have more of a say in what is important to them, as parents, pupils and school staff alike as they strive to improve the learning experiences for all learners.”
To ensure funding is used effectively, professional learning sessions for school staff took place to explain the process of Participatory Budgeting.
Each school formed a participatory budgeting group which was made up of pupils, parents and staff to ensure the process was inclusive and participative from the get-go.
The groups carried out consultations on a variety of ideas through parental coffee sessions, Google Forms, electronic programmes such as Jamboard to create post-it note boards of pupil ideas and paper mind maps of ideas. Schools then involved everyone by asking them to vote on priorities for funding.
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